A damaged manhole cover on the A47 at Dereham which caused long delays for drivers throughout today has been temporarily fixed.

Motorists had endured long delays from about 8am today after a manhole cover came off in a lane running eastbound towards Norwich, halfway between Easton and the Honingham roundabout.

Police were letting drivers through in turns and a team from Highways England was sent to the scene, along with BT engineers who are responsible for the manhole cover.

As of about 7pm tonight, there continued to be delays of about half an hour with queues of traffic in both directions for several miles.

Highways England initially estimated that the repairs would be completed by 2pm today but it now appears they will not be finished until tomorrow morning.

However late this evening the highways agency said a temporary fix had been made to the manhole and it was hoped that this would ease congestion.

‏@HighwaysEAST, the official Twitter feed for Highways England in the east, tweeted at about 10pm: “GOOD NEWS - On the #A47 #Norfolk btwn B1110 - #A1074 #Longwater nr #Norwich A temporary fix has been made to the manhole and both lanes are open east and westbound with the temporary light removed. This should ease congestion in the morning. Safe journey.”

An earlier tweet has said that “a concrete repair” had been made to the manhole and that “a final tarmac fill” will be made tomorrow morning.

Throughout today drivers had been advised to avoid the area if they can.

Bus companies including Konectbus and First have tweeted to warn of delays to their services and some have taken diversions to avoid the area.

There were further delays on the A47 in Scarning this morning when three cars were involved in a collision but traffic conditions were back to normal by 11am.